French deputy vows to keep social house despite huge salary

French deputy Rachel Kéké, a former chambermaid, asserted on Friday that she has kept her social housing since being legally elected, recalling that her “life before will continue after her mandate”, in a statement released on X (ex-Twitter).

The MP, who has lived in social housing in Chevilly-Larue (Val-de-Marne) for 7 years, is supported by the leader of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon. He denounced on X a “new fascist polemic”, after certain media had denounced the fact that she had not left her accommodation, even though she now has a deputy’s allowance which allows her to rent a private apartment.

Jean-Luc Melenchon said he hoped she would stay in her HLM apartment “even if the rent has to be adapted”, adding that she was “not elected for life”. “And it’s a good thing that the people’s elected representatives don’t abandon the lives of their own,” he continued.

In her statement, Ms. Kéké explains that she contacted her social landlord as soon as she was elected in June 2022. The latter informed her that she could remain in her apartment by paying “an additional rent”.

This is the choice she made, for the sake of her four children “who have their life here”, and “to carry out (her) mandate as closely as possible to the realities on the ground”, she explains.

“All my life I’ve been a precarious worker, all my life I’ve lived in working-class neighborhoods”, explains Rachel Kéké, who “doesn’t see her role as an elected official as a career”. 

“My life before continues and will continue after my mandate as deputy”, she justifies, denouncing “yet another attack from the far right”.

The CGT activist and former spokeswoman for the long strike by chambermaids at the Ibis Batignolles hotel, which made her a household name, was elected in June 2022, beating former Sports Minister Roxana Maracineanu in the second round.